Clovis North falls to Riordan, Tomlinson leads Clovis West over St. Mary’s
Fresh off winning the program’s first-ever top division Central Section title, the Clovis North boys basketball team took down Branson High School in the 1st Round of the Open Division state tournament on Wednesday.
But on Saturday in a NorCal Regional Semifinal game, the No. 3 seeded Broncos came up a little short at No. 2 seed Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco.
The Crusaders led 21-10 after the first quarter. The Broncos cut it to 29-26 at halftime, but the third quarter belonged to Riordan, on their way to a 69-57 win.
In other state boys action Saturday, Clovis West, the top seed in Division I, lost 70-53 at home to No. 4 seed Granada, in a NorCal Regional Semifinal.
Bullard fared a little better in their Division III NorCal Regional Semifinal, outlasting second-seeded Justin-Siena (Napa), 63-62 in double overtime.
The sixth-seeded Knights will hit the road Tuesday night to face top-seeded Santa Cruz in the NorCal Regional final, with the winner advancing to the state championship game Friday afternoon (4 p.m.) at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
In Division VI, Sac-Joaquin section champion Stone Ridge Christian saw its season end on Saturday night, as the second-seeded Knights were taken out by No. 6 Napa Christian, 65-60, in a NorCal Regional semifinal.
On the girls side, Clovis west, the two-seed in the Open Division, got 30 points from senior point guard Athena Tomlinson, as the Golden Eagles beat St. Mary’s out of Stockton, 69-57, in a NorCal Regional Semifinal.
St. Mary’s featured McDonald’s All-American Jordan Lee, who finished with 29 points in the loss.
“The key to beating a great team is believing you can win, coming out hard, hitting ’em in the mouth,” said Tomlinson, who is committed to play in the ACC next year at Boston College. “Playing every rep like it’s your last, playing hard on defense. I mean, valueing the ball, going for every rebound, that’s how you beat great teams, and I believe Clovis West, this team can do it.”
The Golden Eagles will travel to San Jose to face undefeated and NorCal No. 1 seed Archbishop Mitty, in the NorCal Regional Championship game Tuesday night.
The Monarchs are 29-0, and ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, and No. 1 in the country by Maxpreps.com.
The Clovis West/Archbishop Mitty winner will advance to the girls Open Division state championship game next Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Golden 1 Center.
Meantime, in the Division III girls, there was a surprising result.
In front of a boisterous Caruthers rooting section, which travelled to west Fresno for the game, the 14th-seeded Caruthers girls won at Central 36-34.
Central has nearly four times as many students as Caruthers.
The Blue Raiders will travel to NorCal No. 1 seeded University High School of San Francisco, in Tuesday’s Division III NorCal Regional final, with the winner there advancing to the Division III girls state title game, Friday at 2 p.m. at the Golden 1 Center.
Unfortunately, both soccer teams from our viewing area lost in regional finals on Saturday.
The Porterville boys lost 5-0 to Foothill of Bakersfield, in the Division III SoCal Regional Championship game, and the Hilmar girls lost 5-4 in penalty kicks to Winters in the Division V NorCal Regional Championship game.
